I'm a physics major at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on the Computational Physics track. I came in with AP credit, placed into advanced coursework, and am now taking upper-level classical mechanics. Mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and calculus are what I work with every day, so AP Physics 1, AP Physics C, and AP Calculus are material I know deeply. I also worked as a software engineer at a Y Combinator-backed startup, where I had to learn to code from scratch in about two...
I'm a physics major at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on the Computational Physics track. I came in with AP credit, placed into advanced coursework, and am now taking upper-level classical mechanics. Mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and calculus are what I work with every day, so AP Physics 1, AP Physics C, and AP Calculus are material I know deeply. I also worked as a software engineer at a Y Combinator-backed startup, where I had to learn to code from scratch in about two weeks. That taught me a lot about how people actually learn hard material fast.
My approach is intuition first. Most students who struggle in physics aren't bad at math; they've been handed equations without ever seeing why those equations are true. I start each topic with the physical picture, using a sketch, a free-body diagram, or a quick "what would happen if" question, and only then bring in the formula, so it feels like a conclusion instead of something to memorize. Then we work real AP free-response problems together, and I have students explain their reasoning out loud so we can find the exact step where things go wrong instead of just checking the final answer.
I work best with high school students in AP Physics 1, AP Physics C (Mechanics and E&M), and AP Calculus AB/BC. Lessons are one-on-one, online or in person around Champaign-Urbana, and built around whatever your class is covering that week or a focused plan for the AP exam in May.
